1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method, which composes a melody and an accompaniment by switching musical phrase data, each of which is an element of a melody data which indicates the melody and the accompaniment, and a program storage medium readable by the apparatus for combining a melody and an accompaniment.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that an electronic musical instrument which plays predetermined melodies or accompaniment patterns, which are read out from a memory device, by pressing each key or some combination of keys of a keyboard, instead of generating a musical note in correspondence with the key.
Japanese Patent Laid Open Hei No.8-6549 discloses a method of composing a melody on the basis of the information of the position of a figure which is displayed on a display of a computer.
In these apparatus and method, a new melody is selected and played rapidly when each key is pressed, or when the beginning of the next musical time unit such as a measure, etc. comes after the key is pressed.
The former has the defect that a rhythm of a previous melody dose not harmonize with a rhythm of the new melody, so that a whole melody is not played smoothly.
The latter has the defect that the other key pressing while the melody is played is not reflected in the melody.